Go Tell It on the Mountain

Go Tell It on the Mountain is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by James Baldwin telling the story of John Grimes, an intelligent teenager in 1930s Harlem, and his relationship with his family and his church, while also revealing the back stories of his mother, his biological father, and his violent, fanatically religious stepfather, Gabriel Grimes. The novel focuses on the role of the Pentecostal Church in the lives of African Americans, both as a negative source of repression and moral hypocrisy and a positive source of inspiration and community; in 1998 the Modern Library ranked it 39th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century, and Time magazine included it on its own list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005.